Series

Interdependence and Predictability of Human Mobility and Social Interactions by Mirco Musolesi University of Birmingham

Abstract: The study of the interdependence of human movement and social ties of individuals is one of the most interesting research areas in computational social science. Previous studies have shown that human movement is predictable to a certain extent at different geographic scales. One of the open problems is how to improve the prediction exploiting additional available information. In particular, one of the key questions is how to characterise and exploit the correlation between movements of friends and acquaintances to increase the accuracy of the forecasting algorithms. Continue reading

Event details

  • When: 15th April 2013 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium, Seminar

Towards reliable and responsible social network research by Tristan Henderson – University of St Andrews

This seminar is suitable for CS3053-RPIC

Abstract
Social network sites (SNSs) such as Facebook and Twitter are used by hundreds of millions of people daily. As such they represent an attractive source of data for research. Many researchers have crawled these SNSs to collect data for projects involving psychology, sociology, health, and of course computer science. But there are many risks to naively crawling an SNS, ranging from data protection and privacy concerns to the reliability of the collected data.

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Event details

  • When: 11th February 2013 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium, Seminar

Four Geeks and an Entrepreneur

Al Dearle, Monty Widenius, Steve Linton, Ian Gent

Al Dearle, Monty Widenius, Steve Linton, Ian Gent (left to right), St Andrews, 15 October 2012

We were privileged today to hear three lectures from Monty Widenius, main author of the MySQL database system.   His main focus was on entrepreneurship and being an entrepreneur while giving away source code on an open source basis.

Three staff members from St Andrews are pictured with Monty before the first lecture, in St Salvator’s quad at the University of St Andrews.

Event details

  • When: 15th October 2012
  • Series: Distinguished Lectures Series

Distinguished Lecture Series: MySQL and Open Source Business, by Monty Widenius

Monty Widenius delivered the Semester 1 Distinguished Lecture Series on Monday 15th October 2012, from 10am to 3.30pm, in Upper College Hall.

Monty is CEO & CTO at Monty Program Ab, and is perhaps best known as founder of MySQL, the world’s most used open source.

Monty delivered three lectures on MySQL and Open Source Business.  He has kindly made the slides available – linked to from the titles.

The lectures were  introduced by the Dean of Science, Prof Al Dearle, and refreshments were provided at 11am.

These lectures were open to all.

The detailed programme is available as a pdf: Monty Widenius DLS Programme

Event details

  • When: 15th October 2012 10:00 - 15:30
  • Series: Distinguished Lectures Series
  • Format: Seminar

Seminar – Connecting Families over Distance – Dr. Carman Neustaedter

Connecting Families over Distance

Families often have a real need and desire to stay connected with their remote family members and close friends. For example, grandparents want to see their grandchildren grow up, empty-nest parents want to know about the well being of their adult children, and parents want to be involved in their children’s daily routines and happenings while away from them. Video conferencing is one technology that is increasingly being used by families to support this type of need. In this talk, I will give an overview of the research that my students and I have done in this space. This includes studies of the unique ways in which families with children, long-distance couples, and teenagers make use of existing video chat systems to support ‘presence’ and ‘connection’ over distance. I will also show several systems we have designed to support always-on video connections that move beyond ‘talking heads’ to ‘shared experiences’.


Biography

Dr. Carman Neustaedter is an Assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Dr. Neustaedter specializes in the areas of human-computer interaction, domestic computing, and computer-supported collaboration. He is the director of the Connections Lab, an interdisciplinary research group focused on the design and use of technologies for connecting people through space and time. This includes design for families and friends, support for workplace collaboration, and bringing people together through pervasive games. For more information, see:
Connections Lab.

Event details

  • When: 18th June 2012 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium

School Seminar by Eoin Woods

The Role of the Software Architect in Industry

Eoin Woods is a professional software architect and amateur software architecture researcher, having spent over 20 years in software engineering practice and contributed a number of papers and a co-authored book to the research literature on software architecture. In this talk, he will discuss how the two worlds relate to each other, the context for software architecture provided by enterprise software development and what software architects actually spend their days doing. The aim of the talk is to provide an honest insight into the day-to-day work of an industrial software architect, while still inspiring people to become one!

Event details

  • When: 8th May 2012 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium

Seminar, An Overview of the AspeKT Project – Turning Academic Excellence into Gold by Colin Adams

An Overview of the AspeKT Project – Turning Academic Excellence into Gold


Abstract


The talk will give an overview of the major elements of the AspeKT project a 3 year program funded by Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council dedicated to improving the flow of ideas between the research excellence and talent pool produced by SICSA, and local industry. It will go through the major elements of the program designed to stimulate industrial innovation and a great flow of start-ups from that research base.


Bio


Dr Colin Adams is the Director of Commercialisation at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh and the Director of the AspekT program – the knowledge transfer program for the SICSA research pool. Colin started as an academic in the 1970’s before moving to Digital Equipment Corporation where he managed the development of VAX/VMS operating system before running the office automation business and the All-In-1 product line. He then moved into Electronic Design Automation and silicon, founding European Silicon Structures , US Silicon Structures and EuCAD. He sold EuCAD to Cadence Design Systems and managed various Cadence businesses and finally running the TALITY Management Buy Out. After a brief attempt at retiring he returned to the School of Informatics at University of Edinburgh to run the ProspeKT program focusing on generating start-ups out of the talent pool there.
He also chairs 2 local start-ups: ATEEDA and Coriolis Media and is a non Exec Director for ScotlandIS. HE has a BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics and a PhD in Computer Science, both from the University of Edinburgh

Event details

  • When: 23rd April 2012 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium

Autonomy handover and rich interaction on mobile devices by Simon Rodgers

Abstract: In this talk I will present some of the work being done in the new Inference, Dynamics, and Interaction group, at the University of Glasgow. In particular, we are interested in using probabilistic inference to improve interaction technology on handheld devices (particularly with touch screens).

I will show how we are using sequential Monte-Carlo techniques to infer distributions over user inputs which can be (1) augmented with applications to provide a smooth handover of control between the human and device and (2) used to extract additional information regarding touch interactions and subsequently improve touch accuracy.

There is a short bio on my webpage:
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~srogers

Event details

  • When: 19th March 2012 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium, Seminar

A large-scale study of information needs by Karen Church

In recent years, mobile phones have evolved from simple communication devices to sophisticated personal computers enabling anytime, anywhereaccess to a wealth of information. Understanding the types of information needs that occur while mobile and how these needs are addressed is crucial in order to design and develop novel services that are tailored to mobile users.

To date, studies exploring information needs, in particular mobile needs, have been relatively small in terms of scope, scale and duration. The goal of this work is to investigate information needs on a much larger-scale and to explore, through quantitative analysis, how those needs are addressed.To this end, we conducted one of the most comprehensive studies of information needs to date, spanning a 3-month period and involving over 100 users. The study employed an intelligent experience sampling algorithm, an online diary and SMS technology to gather insights into the types of needs that occur from day to day.

Our results not only complement earlier studies but also shed new light on the differences between mobile and non-mobile information needs as well as the impact of demographics like gender have on the types of needs that arise and on the means chosen to satisfy those needs. Finally, we point to a number of design implications for enriching the future experiences of mobile users based on our findings..

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Event details

  • When: 5th March 2012 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium, Seminar